The 1926 Antelope Fire as seen from Willow Creek Valley. Courtesy of Lola L. Tanner
The 1928 fire season was different than most. In July witnessed the largest fire on the Lassen National Forest at Mill Creek near Mineral. It consumed nearly 11,000 acres, most of which was cut over lands of the old Sierra Lumber Company. Most of the other fires on the Lassen were two to ten acres in size. Other areas in California did not fare so well.
This was, however, when the area experienced its first large range fire. A fire broke out near Horse Lake and then extended all the way to Secret Valley consuming some 128,000 acres. While no structures were lost, considerable damage to fences was an issue. The area was used for sheep range by R.T. Jenkins and the Jauregui Brothers.
In 1861, James Lee settled on the west side of Big Meadows, not too far from where the original town of Prattville would be established, He died on June 17, 1864 and buried on his property. This, in time, became the Prattville Cemetery.
In 1914, Great Western Power Company transformed a portion of Big Meadows into Lake Almanor. In 1926, Great Western was in the process to heighten its dam, where by Lake Almanor would double in size. Thus, Great Western had to mitigate some of the areas impacted by the increased size of Lake Almanor, such as the construction of the Chester Causeway and the Prattville Cemetery would need to be moved to higher ground.
In October 1926, Great Western hired Greenville resident Kenneth Murray to exhume the bodies, some 101, and move them 300 yards to the west. A.D. Greig of the Susanville Marble Works was in charge of relocating the thirty-five monuments in the cemetery.
On a final Pacific Gas & Electric Company, the successor of Great Western, donated the Prattville Cemetery to the Chester Cemetery District in 1962.
On a quarterly basis, I ask you the reader, if there is something you would like to learn more about or maybe its something you heard, but question its validity. So here is an opportunity to participate. I will do my best to answer any questions. It should be noted, it may take awhile for the answer to appear as a post. The primary reason, many of the daily posts are done nearly a month in advance. So by the time you read this I am already working on posts for the middle of November, or at least I should be. Whatever the case may be, I look forward to hearing from you. Of course, it should be noted that paid subscribers requests receive priority. In addition, you can always send a request at any time.
Numerous springs in the Intermountain West are named for wranglers and itinerant sheepman. Laird Springs is one, that has an interesting story, and one of which is still an unsolved murder.
Edward Laird was born in 1862, the eldest of three children, his two siblings Margaret born 1863, and brother Warren in 1864. They were orphaned at an early age and raised in an orphanage in Carson City, Nevada. As young men, Ed and Warren went to work on various ranches in Northeastern California. By the late 1890s, they had settled in the North Warner Valley, Lake County, Oregon. Warren would remain in Lake County for the rest of his life.
In the early 1900s, Edward Laird worked as a ranch hand at Round Hole, Smoke Creek Desert, also known as Bonham Ranch. The owners William and Martha Bonham Ross, were in-laws to Laird’s sister, Margaret Sutcliffe.
Very little is known of Laird’s activities on the Smoke Creek Desert. Sometime after 1910, Laird filed a “squatter’s claim” to eighty acres, three miles north of Round Hole. There was a spring on the claim where he built a cabin. Edward Laird was murdered on or about August 20, 1917. Details of his murder are sketchy. According to newspaper reports, his body was marked with two shot gun wounds and he was found dead in his cabin. On August 29, 1917 the Nevada State Journal had a caption, “Revenge Believed to Have Been the Cause of Killing With Shotgun near Round Hole.” However, the newspaper did not provide any details. A week later area ranchers offered a $500 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the party who murdered Laird. That was basically the end of the case. Cook Laird, Warren’s grandson, told me that Edward was a red head who was known to be hot headed with a mean temper.
Edward Laird was buried 100 yards east of where the spring bears his name.
The Lincoln School Remodel—Lassen Advocate, November 21, 1975
At the end of the 1966-67 school year, Lincoln School was closed, being replaced by the newly constructed Diamond View School. For a brief time Lassen College used the facility while its new campus was under construction.
In July 1975, Victor Bullard of Placerville purchased the shuttered Lincoln School. Bullard had the building remodeled. An addition was made to the front of the building, replacing the old exterior staircase. On December 1, 1975 the Eagle Lake District of the Lassen National Forest became the new occupants of the building. Previous to this, the District’s office was located in the former Paul Bunyan Lumber Company office.
Way back yonder in 1907 was the first year one had to obtain a hunting license in California. To obtain a hunting license one had to fill out an application with the county clerk, or one of the clerk’s deputies scattered around the county. The fee $1.00. The initial license was a small aluminum tag. I am so grateful for my dear colleague Betty Barry Deal who provided me with one.
In 1899, the U.S. Department of Agriculture commissioned a study on water problems in the American West. The Honey Lake Basin was one place selected and William Smythe was hired to author the report.
Smythe was well known for his work on reclamation issues in the West. However, Smythe was well versed in the region beginning in 1897 with his Standish Colony and the Honey Lake Valley Colonial Irrigation System. Smythe did provide some unique observations. Concerning Eagle Lake, Smythe noted the importance of the lake for irrigation. Smythe stressed that the lake should only be used during periods of drought, but that the lake was essential in any major reclamation project for the Honey Lake Valley. Smythe became the first person to go on record questioning Eagle Lake’s water supply. It was widely believed that the lake’s water supply was “inexhaustible” due to mysterious springs in the lake’s bottom. Smythe retorted that it that was true, then why had the level of the lake not increased over the years to flood the borderlands, or to eventually overflow the Willow Creek divide? Smythe finally wrote, “It is question which can never be satisfactorily settled until the experiment of the tunnel is actually made.”
Smythe made it a point to stress the problems of California’s vagueness in water right appropriations and that it was a major hindrance in the development of the Honey Lake Valley. He noted one claim of 4,000,000 miner inches of Eagle Lake and Willow Creek water and sarcastically wrote, “Fortunately for those residents of Honey Lake Valley who could not swim, this enterprise was never carried out.” It should be noted that between 1874 to 1897 there were 14,201,400 miner inches of Eagle Lake water claimed!
Over a century ago, it did not take much to form a corporation. Many of the Articles of Incorporation consisted of two pages. In the Lassen region numerous small companies incorporated and by today’s standards many would be deemed a non-profit. This was the preferred method then to raise money by the sale of stock. Some ventures succeeded, while others did not.
Take for instance in 1899 a group of local leaders formed the Susanville Hall Association. This they thought was needed since there were no public halls. It was their goal to sell $5,000 in stock. They did not succeed and their initial offering only netted $450.
Stock certificate courtesy of Dick and Helen Harrison
In 1908, the Standish Hall Association was successful. Seasoned residents will know the building as the former Neil’s Mercantile. It is the vacant two-story building on Highway 395 and to the west is the Wayside.
The Standish store, no date. Courtesy of Camilla Moody.
By the 1920s, the practice of forming small corporations was declining. The Susanville Country Club that purchased the Wingfield Estate was successful and then there was the Susanville Hotel Company, i.e., Hotel Mt. Lassen that turned into a messy affair.
Once upon a time, during deer hunting season the population of Lassen County more than doubled. This was especially true during the 1940s and 1950s.
In September 1946, the Lassen National Forest expected over 20,000 deer hunters. Deer season opened on September 21, 1946 and by September 30, some 14,994 deer hunters had checked in at various points throughout Lassen County.
With that many people, problems occurred. There were four fatalities—two by gun shot and two by heart attack. The gun shot victims were Orin Gerig of Bieber and Columbo Fortino of Oakland, who was shot in the leg at Mill Creek, taken to the Westwood Hospital where he succumbed of his injuries. James Maloney of San Francisco died of heart attack while hunting near Termo, and the same fate happened to Clel Tally of Sacramento near Pine Creek Valley.
Officials were concerned about the fire danger. There were seventeen fires caused by careless deer hunters. Fortunately, none of these fires caused any major damage. No information was released as to how many deer were killed, but all the cold storage meat lockers in Susanville and Westwood were at capacity.
In conclusion, the deer season was even included in Fruit Growers Supply Company’s 1946 Annual Report:
“Much of the country in which Company timber is located is considered to have good deer hunting, and the deer season opens at a time when the woods are in the driest conditions and when the fire hazard is the greatest. The handling of the large influx of people into the general Northern California area during the deer hunting season constitutes a very serious problems to all owners and agencies interested in timberlands. In 1946, hunters and their parties were registered as they entered Lassen County area, and during one week’s time, close to 5,000 automobiles and 13,000 individuals registered as potential deer hunters. Thus more hunters were checked into Lassen County than its normal population. Despite this, the Company was fortunate in its 1946 experience with forest fires.”
Subscribe and support this site for little as $5.00 a month.
While financial depression of the 1930s wreaked havoc in most of the nation, there were pockets, while still hit hard, it was not bleak like so many regions. Lassen County was fortunate, though it did not escape the ills of the depression. On the bright side the big three lumber mills—Fruit Growers, Lassen Lumber and Red River—remained opened, but with curtailed operations. That was a major feat, since sawmills of the west coast were hit hard with some 70-80% closed.
Great Northern’s Depot, Bieber.
The northern half of the county was an interesting tale of boom and bust at the same time. Big Valley boomed, especially Bieber and the newly created Nubieber. This was attributed with the arrival of the railroads, i.e. the Great Northern Extension, Highline, Inside Gateway, etc since it is referred by several names. In 1931, at Nubieber, the Great Northern connected with the Western Pacific Railroad and exciting times were to be had. Its neighboring section to the east, the Madeline Plains did not fare so well. That district’s downfall had already been on the decline in the 1920s and the 1930s accelerated its depopulation. Joining that club the desert homesteaders of eastern Honey Lake as well as Secret Valleys who saw their future wane. Only the hardiest would remain.
Another segment of the agricultural community that took a deep hit were those associated with the Baxter Creek and Tule Irrigation Districts. For many their dreams collided with reality when Leon Bly’s tapping Eagle Lake for a water supply failed for the districts—forcing untold bankruptcies.
For Susanville it was a very transformative time. From the 1910s and 1920s witnessed an explosive growth and transformation. By the early 1930s it experienced an economic hangover. While it had some struggles, it had modest growth. As a bonus was President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal that among things Susanville would be a beneficiary for a swimming pool and post office, the latter still in operation.
Susanville Post Office, circa 1940.
Finally, it should be noted by the late 1910s, rural communities such as Doyle, Janesville, Milford and Standish had already begun a slow decline. The culprit, the automobile and better roads. One could now travel a greater distance thus bypassing the need to stay and for that matter do trade. Fast forward to 2022, and that trends continue with residents going to Chico, Redding and Reno to conduct business.
